I’m normally not a huge fan of daily quests. I make a few of them, but more often than not it’s out of duty and a fixed idea that I “have to” make the best out of my character than anything else. Not doing them would feel like slacking. Yeah, I’m probably a bit silly, but that’s me.
I still have painful memories of being captured in slavery for the Sons of Hodir, polishing their not-to-be-mentioned thingies and whatnot. Pure humiliation, I tell you.
The very moment when I dinged exalted with Therazane, I told them some truths about what I really thought about them and made it perfectly clear that I was out of that pit for good. If they wanted shiny rocks from labyrinths they would have to grab them themselves. I was done.
Tol Barad
I’m still on the fence about the Tor Barad dailies. Admittedly those guys have some quite shiny trinkets in their store and a close to irresistible non combat pet. However most of the quests are underwhelming, to say the least.
We thought that Blizzard hade moved on from the “kill-ten-rats” quest era and that quests were supposed to be fun and interesting these days. The truth is: they haven’t. Not entirely. They just gathered them all up in this zone. Gather body parts from crocs, kill tons of spiders, kill X amount of mobs in the Y village. Zzzzzz.
I still do the Tol Barad quests occasionally, sort of half hearted. But not all of them and not every day; that would be more than I could stomach.
When you think about it closer, isn’t it rather insane to even consider doing the same simple, un-fun quest over and over again? Especially so since I still haven’t cherished all content there in for instance Vashj’ir and Twilight Highlands. But the min-maxing madness is hard to resist once it gets hold of you. I reckon that’s why I haven’t given up on them altogether.
There are exceptions of course. Pygmy slaughtering, say no more! You can never get enough of that, can you?
Quests I can do again
As I shared my enthusiasm for that daily quest the other day, I started to think about other quests I like in Cataclysm. Was there any other quest that I hadn’t had enough of doing it once? Was there a quest that I could imagine to do over and over again, even once I’ve reached exalted, just because of the entertainment value?
There was. There was one quest that came out as top-on mind, one quest that kept me giggling all the way as I did it. One quest that tendered to my need for big numbers and merciless slaughter of small creatures.
Yep. I’m talking about Gnomebliteration, the quest in Uldum where you handle a gigantic fireball, rolling down the hill on the hunt for 1 000 (!) crazed gnomes.
If I’d known better as I did it, I would never have turned it in. Then I could have done it over and over again as much as I wanted to. According to the comments at Wowhead, you can proceed in Uldum without completing this quest. But I didn’t know, so now it’s out of my reach unless I level an alt.
My hope now is that Blizzard will hear the cries from the masses. Judging from pleading threads in the forums and from several of the comments to my pygmy quest post, I’m not the only one who loves to crush gnomes with a giant ball of fire.
Make Gnomebliteration into a daily!
I still have painful memories of being captured in slavery for the Sons of Hodir, polishing their not-to-be-mentioned thingies and whatnot. Pure humiliation, I tell you.
The very moment when I dinged exalted with Therazane, I told them some truths about what I really thought about them and made it perfectly clear that I was out of that pit for good. If they wanted shiny rocks from labyrinths they would have to grab them themselves. I was done.
Tol Barad
I’m still on the fence about the Tor Barad dailies. Admittedly those guys have some quite shiny trinkets in their store and a close to irresistible non combat pet. However most of the quests are underwhelming, to say the least.
We thought that Blizzard hade moved on from the “kill-ten-rats” quest era and that quests were supposed to be fun and interesting these days. The truth is: they haven’t. Not entirely. They just gathered them all up in this zone. Gather body parts from crocs, kill tons of spiders, kill X amount of mobs in the Y village. Zzzzzz.
I still do the Tol Barad quests occasionally, sort of half hearted. But not all of them and not every day; that would be more than I could stomach.
When you think about it closer, isn’t it rather insane to even consider doing the same simple, un-fun quest over and over again? Especially so since I still haven’t cherished all content there in for instance Vashj’ir and Twilight Highlands. But the min-maxing madness is hard to resist once it gets hold of you. I reckon that’s why I haven’t given up on them altogether.
There are exceptions of course. Pygmy slaughtering, say no more! You can never get enough of that, can you?
Quests I can do again
As I shared my enthusiasm for that daily quest the other day, I started to think about other quests I like in Cataclysm. Was there any other quest that I hadn’t had enough of doing it once? Was there a quest that I could imagine to do over and over again, even once I’ve reached exalted, just because of the entertainment value?
There was. There was one quest that came out as top-on mind, one quest that kept me giggling all the way as I did it. One quest that tendered to my need for big numbers and merciless slaughter of small creatures.
Yep. I’m talking about Gnomebliteration, the quest in Uldum where you handle a gigantic fireball, rolling down the hill on the hunt for 1 000 (!) crazed gnomes.
If I’d known better as I did it, I would never have turned it in. Then I could have done it over and over again as much as I wanted to. According to the comments at Wowhead, you can proceed in Uldum without completing this quest. But I didn’t know, so now it’s out of my reach unless I level an alt.
My hope now is that Blizzard will hear the cries from the masses. Judging from pleading threads in the forums and from several of the comments to my pygmy quest post, I’m not the only one who loves to crush gnomes with a giant ball of fire.
Make Gnomebliteration into a daily!
28 comments:
Yes please!! I would do this quest every day!
You make a good point about the Tol Barad dailies, too. When I think about the quests I dread the most (as far as the new dailies go), the ones that come to mind are the Kill 10 Gyreworms and Kill 8 Fungus Guys in Deepholm, and then the Kill X of Y Baddies in Tol Barad. Why is it that I will collect stinking fish carcasses without complaint, but balk at having to kill a certain number of nervous villagers?
if you love that daily, and you haven't played the game that inspired it, you totally should: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katamari_Damacy
quite possibly my favorite playstation game. it's at the very least in the top 5. maybe top 3.
What, no love for jousting? Couldn't you keep doing that forever, and ever, and ever, and...
Eh, maybe not?
I hated having to joust for those very, very nice rewards. The Tol Barad quests are buttered waffles compared to the stink pile that was jousting.
Give me Gnome-burning balls and sneaky picker hammers any day. Oh and Snozz (snotch, snotz?) flame jumpers are fun also, in a sordid and sadistic sort of way...
But... YOU ARE A GNOME YOURSELF!!! You traitor!
But yeah, I'd love to do this again. I just won't like it if I'm forced to do it every day until I get some shiny trinket. That would be a nice way to suck the fun out of it.
And the jousting quest. Gave me severe motion sickness on both toons I did it on. So bad that I had a bad headache for an hour each time. I'm considering not going thru Hyjal again because of that quest.
As usual, you bring up a great thought-provoking question: what quest would you make into a daily?
For me, I have not done anything really in Uldum, but the bear tossing from the trees of Mount Hyjal should be a daily quest and an event at the next winter Olympics. What a great little quest.
Oh, the ground is not a "soft spot"...sorry!
I want "plants vs zombies" as a daily already! =(
it just seems to rot there in Hillsbrad, huge shame really.
Her Gnomishness: "When you think about it closer, isn’t it rather insane to even consider doing the same simple, un-fun quest over and over again"
I'd like to say "Welcome to the World of Warcraft business model" but I'm yet to find the words that won't make me sound all sour and puckered as I glare at Blizzard over my pint.
I do not like the concept of static dialy quests. I do not like repetitive content. If that is gameplay I'd rather play Space Invaders.
The development house that gave us random, instanced dungeons in Diablo way back in 1996 cannot create a similar, random dungeon or quest generator to replace daily quests in 2011?
/throws some bar nuts
Bah humbug!
As much as Gnomebliteration was fun, I think it'd lost much of it's entertainment value if it were turned into daily - hundreds of people doing it in prime time at once can easily make one of the most fun quests pain in the ass.
Still would be one of the few dailies worth doing tho I imagine.
It seems you are from a different planet. Or maybe I am. I don't enjoy killing small ugly creatures at all and I certainly don't enjoy massacring 1000 gnomes. Especially not since I know that in WoW those creatures are intelligent beings with sophisticated emotions.
Moreover, I cannot imagine a game, or any environment for that matter, that made me enjoy this. I wouldn't even enjoy killing 1000 frogs; not in games, not in real life.
What quest did I enjoy ? The original Onyxia quests. They felt meaningful and serious enough.
Maybe I am just too serious and have a bad humor. But then again I also honestly dislike cake-in-your-face humor and a lot of people would agree that this is, indeed, not the best humor, is it?
Without trying to offend anybody: I honestly am interested in the psychological background that can make humans enjoy such activities.
Oh yeah! I already mentioned this quest as the best one so far in Cata on my first post about the expansion. Make it daily? Yes please!
I think there's an innate condition to gnomes that makes them perfect candidates for some squishing action, even for other gnomes!
I also loved the prequel quest "Hacking the Wibson" as a reference to "Hackers" movie (even tough the movie stinks).
So count with my vote for gnome-squishing rolling action!
I LOVED that quest. I'm just surprised that gnomes also love that quest :)
What might be interesting in this context is this online test:
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/the-3-variable-funny-test
According to the test I am a Prankster ;)
About Tol Barad quests: I made it to exalted in 2 weeks, and you know that I'm the most dedicated anti-farmer and hate daily quests with fury (most probably because they are associated with those players who use them for making gold).
The trick: ignore item collection quests. No crocks, no shackles, no wood, no weapons, no cannonballs! Gather a group of 5. In a group you still only have to kill 12 spiders, not 5*12! So the kill counter is just running up on your screen, not to mention that the usually ferocious hordies find their /wave macro very fast when they see you in a full group.
You can do 3-5 the outer dailies in 10-15 minutes, and do the 4 inner dailies (Problim, horde infantry, prisoners/demons/ghosts, boss of prisoners/demons/ghosts) in 10 minutes. With the guild perk, that's about 5K honor/hour.
I...may have abandoned and re-accepted that quest multiple times. ;) I agree that it would make a fantastic daily! Or heck, even just make it repeatable with no reward like the bombing quests in Hellfire! It'd be a great stress reliever.
A guildie and I immediately said "this should be a daily" as soon as we did that quest. If it was "kill 1000 dwarves", it might not have been as fun, but I really hate (most) gnomes.
Nils: I think you are reaching a bit too much when you are looking for psychological explanations. It's called fun. Not everything has to be 100% serious. It reminds me of people who listen to "serious musicians" only and can't understand why some people just want to pop in some Poison and have "Nothing but a Good Time".
It's a great quest I'd love to do it as a daily.
Nils: Here's an idea - maybe we enjoy not having to have a conscience ? Like the rest of wow, you get to kill things without regret or guilt. Perhaps there's a latent psychopath in all of us ?
Simple quests for simple minds, I guess...my favorite daily so far? The Stardust JC quest...making so many people happy with just a dash of dust! The whole world sparkles when people are covered in Stardust!
Haven't touched a high level daily in Cata, but I burgled my share of puppies for the Tuskaar, and felt a great satisfaction in doing so... i've been delaying a trip to Uldum thus far only because I already started in Deepholm and want to finish it all up there. But, Uldum sounds a blast, Mass Gnome-Slaughter is right up my alley!
@Redcow: For some reason the kill-villager-quest seems to be one of the most popular. Always overpopulated area with a ton of dead corpses on the ground and villager nuked down as soon as they spawn. It feels very, very hollow and pointless, desperately lacking immersion and purpose. AND it’s boring too. Carcasses… at least they smell.
@Prelimar: I’ve never ever played a playstation game. Maybe I should?
@Hound: I like the jousting on a bird in Hyjal. Should totally be a daily. But the josting in Northrend, I have no longing for to be honest.
@Perdissa: they’re crazed gnomes! I’m basically killing them out of love, as a service. Liberating them, right?
About the jousting in Hyjal, I loved it! I looked so ridiculous, flap-flapping my way down to the floor, I sucked tremendously and still I giggled. AND I made my way through all of the quests, eventually. Would love to do it again!
@Fitz: Noooo. I never got the hang of the bear tossing. There’s something about those aim-at-something devices that I can’t handle. Something with the camera, I don’t know. I just don’t “get it”. Fortunately I did it in company with someone who mastered it. Otherwise I would never have completed it. True story!
@Syl: I have yet to do that to be honest. I figure I was a bit scared away by everyone saying how hard it was, if you weren’t used to that kind of games. I know there are tacs available but after reading them through several time I still couldn’t make it “stick”, remembering all the things to do.
@Pascal: I’m not completely opposed to dailies. There is a certain aspect of dailies that might feel satisfying. Routine might soothen your mind in certain situations. But when it’s something that you don’t enjoy doing and feel that you “have” to do to remain competitive, well… that’s when you start to hate the concept.
@Rahana: The thought of that hit me after posting. Yes, I see the problem. Probably only one at a time could do it and imagine how annoyed we’d be at the queues… Unless you made it phased. I don’t know. All I know is that I’d like to do it again.
@Nils: It appears as if you are. The question is who’s the alien, you or me? I started to check out that humour thing but it became apparent soon enough that it was aimed at a male audience I’m afraid.
@Kurnak: Vote counted!
@Tam: what I said to Perdissa: it’s an act of mercy.
@Gevlon: That sounds like an idea. It’s of course easier in a big guild such as PUG.
@Rades: Good call to abandon it! I’m sad I didn’t think of it.
@Grainger: I’m with you about the fun part. I like a variety of food, music, literature and game content. I wouldn’t like EVERY quest to be about mastering a big ball of fire. But I love that one quest is like that.
@Chewy: One more vote, thank you!
@Imraith Dos Santos: Oh, I guess I’m a simple mind then. I haven’t got any JC but it sounds lovely.
@Nikodhemus: I liked the puppy thing in Tuskaar for some reason and I didn’t mind doing those dailies to get my fishing rod, even though it probably doesn’t come up as one of my top quests ever in WoW.
I have mixed feelings about Uldum. I love the Egyptian theme and there are some really fun quests there. However I felt a tad sidestepped by the Indiana Jones figure who kept taking over the game in cut scenes, leaving me as a passive watcher. I think it was a tad too much of that. But overall – yes, it’s an entertaining zone, at least the first time you do it. Can’t tell if it’s equally enjoyable a second time. I’m afraid the answer might be “no”.
1/3
A Grouchy, sour-faced grumpkin writes:
Am I one of the few people who didn't enjoy Gnomebliteration much? Come to think of it, the entire 'Gnomes-driven-mad' incursion into Uldum felt (for me anyhow) like a rather 'daft' and needless Vaudevillesque distraction from the main plot, included more in the interests of goofiness than for any intrinsic story value.
Whilst rolling around in that big, orange ball, I actually had a strong sense of leaping bodily over a large, developer-friendly shark. It felt.. I dunno.... just daft really.... stretching my carefully suspended disbelief well beyond breaking point. After jumping the shark, the next logical scenario would have been one of nuking the fridge... and given the central theme of the Harrison Jones plot, it might actually have been more fitting.
But I waffle (which are also orange).
What can I say about Tol Barad Dailys? Dear Tol Barad Dailys? An ode to the Dailies of Tol Barad......
Let's try it in a long CAPSLOCK string of rantage, and see how that reflects my mood?
THEYAREHOTRRIBLEGHASTLYVILELOATHESOMETOTALUTTERCRAPTASTICBOLLOCKSWITHEXTRABOLLOCKSFORGOODMEASURESTUPIDSTUPIDAAAAghHHHH!!!!1111oneoneone
Nope, sadly that doesn't work, or at least doesn't do them justice.. Let's try and be a little more constructive.
*tumbleweed*
.............Nope sorry, that's no good, I still hate them, and cannot be constructive about this subject.
See, I'm no stranger to daily quests. In some ways I even (gasp!) like them. There I said it.
Wasting Saturday mornings, sauntering through the Isle of Quel Danas on my previous 'main' character, back in the heady, pioneering days of TBC, when men were real men, Bouncy Night Ekves were real Bouncy Night Elves, and festering, ooze-dripping undead were real festering ooze-dripping undead, was, in many ways, a positive experience for me.
It was a nice way of kicking back, while still doing something 'busy' in the game... and at the same time being nicely rewarded for it. There's times when you just don't want to have new stuff and new challenges and opportunities shoved into your face.
2/3
There's times when you want to just to basically switch off, power down, do something that you don't need to think too much about, and have a good old gossip with your friends and guildys as you go along. Happy days for all.
I didn't have much of a problem with the Argent Tournament dailys either, nor the Sons of Hodir. Sure the jousting got a bit repetitive after a while... but ultimately I'd become so good at it... so fluid and well-practised, that I could beat any of those Champions or Boneguard Commanders with my eyes shut.
The only fly in an otherwise spotless ointment was..... OTHER PLAYERS!
'Cos, no matter how much you like a thing, regardless of how good you are at it, and how often you do it. You can bet that Captain Farty will come along, with the depressing regularity of a tiresome and unloved season... ready to muck it all up, and leave you frustrated, your carefully crafted bubble of calm karma blown to smithereens.
There I was, astride my Argent Warhorse on the steps leading up to the Citadel, one Boneguard Commander down, the second one in my sights.. ready fancy with my lance(y).... prepare to charge... BUT NO! ..... Along comes Captain Farty, and three of his farty friends, storming into the assembled mobs, breaking the spell, and sending skellys, Lieuts, and Champs scattering like a racing outboard motor in a pond of calmness.
This means that I have to sit there, for about five minutes, doing nothing...waiting for respawns, spell broken, silently fuming...or... brave the gauntlet of annoying flappy gargoyles, and rapidly diminishing shields, to try and tag one of the 'exposed' Commanders who patrol far from the steps.
Now, you can (quite rightly) argue that I'm being very, very unreasonable to expect to have quest mobs all to myself, and that (quite rightly) other players have exactly the same right to tag these mobs as myself, after all this is an MMO, not a single player game. However, being reasonable is for noobs who like James Blunt.... where was I?
Oh yeah......However obvious and fair-enough this may be, as a person who seems to have a natural horror of aggressively competing with others for resources, I don't have to like it.
What I can do, is grumble a bit put up with it. It's not something that I can control, nor should it be. The joust-disruptions were fairly infrequent, and for every day my bubble was burst by Captain Farty and his Merry Men, there were four or five days when I had the place to myself (I tend to do dailys early in the morning), or those who did turn up were considerate, accepted my group offer, or didn't try and rush in and tag them before me.
And so we come to the Tol Barad dailys, the boring bulk of which consist of: 'Kill X mobs', 'Kill a named mob' and 'pick stuff off the ground'. Where do the devs get their wild, whacky ideas from eh?
I can live with the tedious nature of the quests themselves, but the sheer unpleasantness of ten rival players, all playing the 'rush to tag the respawn first' game, by fair means or foul... helps turn what would be a five minute study in boredom into a 30 minute study in excruciating frustration; as ghosts that spawn under your feet are pulled out from under you by Captain Farty, who, by this point, has brought his entire crew of shipmates with him, and several barrels of rum.
It's probably fine for twitch kids with lightning-fast reactions and tagging/mouse clicking skills.. but for mud-stuck hippos like me, it's a grim endeavour, as I run around aimlessly, desperately trying to get to a freshly-spawned spook only to see it picked up and sucked toward the nearby Deathnight, or blasted with a Hunters' Arcane Shot. Fifteen minutes later, I have like... three kills out of my tally of twelve, and I don't have a prayer of reaching that spawn at the other side of the town before the charging Warrior closes in.
On to the 'kill the named mob' quests, and it's time to join the queue - hopefully close to the point where it respawns. Of course, there's no order to the queue, and it's a dog-eat-dog game of 'fastest first'. It's made dangerous by the fact that most of these mobs are surrounded by standard trash, which will be mostly dead.. only to respawn on top of you at exactly the same time as you are engaging the named guy.
The futility was brought home to me vividly last night, after standing at the top of a tower, by the corpse of some named mob or other. (I'm so detached and disinterested, that I actually didn't even bother reading the quest text, so no idea who he was... which is a rare thing for me).
But, for once I'm alone, there are no other players in the tower and I have a few precious moments.. it should be easy..... the mob spawns, I manage to furiously click upon it, ready my spell... when suddenly... there's this whirlwind sound, and Farty seems to blast into the room like a hurricane, and is furiously attacking the mob before I can so much as blink! Finally he's done.. out he runs... and I'm still stood there, minus the quest credit, feeling stupid.. wondering that the hell I'm doing here. Where did he come from? How did he beat me to it in such a fraction of a second? I dunno, how can he be such a jerk? I dunno.....
Do I really need that staff so badly?
Eventually, a sympathetic Paladin accepted my request to group up, and we finished the remainder of the dailys together; and, in many ways I think that's the best advice I can give for Tol Barad: Group up with someone, if you can.
Pity 80% of those I sent polite whispers to while camping spawns, and clearly on the same quest were completely ignored.
((scuse the LONG post, and the splitting up into three sections, I had no choice, they made me do it).
just piping in again to voice my TWO THUMBS UP for the Joust quest becoming a daily, too. from my experience, i've decided this is entirely generational: older (ahem) gamers who played the original arcade game (one of the best of that era) seem to love the jousting quest. i am among these. those who are younger (aka "whippersnappers") and have never experienced the original in its glory call this quest the worst in the history of the game, and a terrible mechanic. me, i love it. *shrug*
Just to pipe in again regarding dailies. I agree, I hate Tol Barad so much that I cherry pick the quests. I was so glad to finally get revered and the staff on my frost mage main and never have to look at that place again. Even though I want that dragon mount, I would rather do the Netherdrake grind again (which I won't).
Of course, my pally is now 85 and I want that 2-h sword and healing mace. Back to the grind. At least I can skin the crocs to make extra gold. I refuse to do anything I have to go into a building for (the re-pop rates are way too insane and annoying). I also avoid the spiders and anything that I have to fight my way to get to my target.
Overall, they aren't "bad", but I have too many nightmares of dying because of neverending fights due to respawns.
Of course, I really want the ground mount on my rogue - so I see no end to my visits to that hellhole.
btw- I also hate the Dragonmaw dailies. I actually prefer the Therazane ones...and, of course the Plucking Pygmies.
oh yeah - and I'm on a super-low population server, so maybe the respawns aren't the issue for the rest of you. Sounds like it's tagging the mobs which I rarely have an issue with.
Hey thanks a lot for that online test Nils, that was great fun. I am apparently 'The Wit'.
And Grainger... I'm moving to your server heheh. I play on Steamwheedle cartel, which is Medium Pop, and the unending battalions of people competing for mobs in Tol Barad is pretty much as I described it.
I don't mind killing mobs to fight my way to quest locations - as a tailor, more mobs means more cloth, which I'd only be farming anyhow; and I can generally handle fast respawns as long as I'm cautious with decent situational awareness.
Oddly, the one I tend to fail most on is the Wildhammer quest to kill the named elite. By the time I get to him, I'm generally in-game 'drunk' due to collecting the ale barrels for the other quest. This seems to totally screw up my situational awareness in ways beyond the hazy vision that occurs.
Had some very narrow escapes with that guy.
It's always the little guys who get the shaft.
shame on you all.
C out
I sorta like Tol Barad dailies. It goes something like this:
Start killing spiders. Notice Horde crew ganking Alliance. Not going to stand for that! Stop doing dailies. Get a group together. Ravage the horde. Forget to finish dallies or run of of time for the night.
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